Press

Press for Violence/Joy/Chaos

“Jane Marshall Fleming’s Violence/Joy/Chaos is an authentic account of pain exquisitely written from exposed bones offered to the reader for excavation. Her words seeped in pain and grief are poignant and raw- she presents her skeleton through her words and we feel the lasting imprint of her trauma and grief as though we ran barefoot through a junkyard of sharp edges and broken bottles.”

—December Lace

Reviews & Interviews

“Violence/Joy/Chaos is a striking portrait of a young woman, a memoir of the fascinating path her life has taken thus far. More poetry than prose, the sense of who this remarkable woman is comes through on each page. Her highs, her lows, her joys, her sorrows- all is delivered in a way that makes you feel you’ve known her forever. It isn’t reading for the faint of heart. She doesn’t shy away from her pain, instead delivering it as she feels it. This makes it stand put amongst auto-biographical work. There is a truth to how she presents herself that is as undeniable as it is moving.

Jane Marshall Fleming, our dear author and heroine, shows us a life full of paths less traveled, and is candid about her struggles, interspersed with musings on day-to-day life, and intimate glimpses at some of her darkest and lightest days. I for one ended my reading grateful to have been let into her world for even a short time. Her poetry is her own, as is her story.” — Review from user Vincent Rando

“The snippets of Jane Marshall Fleming’s life in Violence/Joy/Chaos is woven together to create an honest, open space to discuss universal themes, such as motherhood, substance abuse, and toxic relationships. Despite its moments of darkness, Fleming shows readers the sliver of light with organic transitions between poetry and the prose of her essays. The collection is at its strongest basking in these moments of light, and her ‘house speaks / And it speaks because [she] built it.’ The title for this collection is more than fitting, as Fleming shows us that between the moments of violence and chaos, there is always joy. “